


An Accident

by alafaye



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alafaye/pseuds/alafaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A difficult case for Harry leaves Draco in a difficult position. Luckily, their family is ready to help out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Accident

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 winter ; master list and prompts can be found [here](http://alafaye.livejournal.com/350228.html). This is day 1, 'accident'.

"Healer Malfoy to Floor Five, Healer Malfoy to Floor Five."

Draco looked up from the patient chart with confusion and then to his charm bracelet. None of them were flashing or warm so none of his patients were in trouble. His charm for Harry was cool and silent against his chest. It was likely a new case, but St. Mungo's had been silent all night, even in the Emergency ward. It wasn't likely that anyone would need his expertise in potions, but maybe it was only another Healer with a question. He made a final note on the chart in his hand and set it back on the nurses' station.

A quick talk with the nurse on duty for the night about further care for the patient and Draco was on his way to Floor Five, Immediate Care. It was the floor where the Aurors usuall ended up as well as the severe cases that happened in the civilian field. Most everyone ended up in a specialty ward, but for the complex cases or ones involving multiple departments, they ended up on Floor Five. Most of Draco's patients were on this floor, working with the Aurors. Like his mentor, Severus, Draco had a knack for solving the complex potions, for finding the key ingredient or discovering what had gone wrong with a potion. More, Draco was able to parse out what damage had been a result of a spell or curse and what had been the result of a potion.

As he left the elevator, he waded into a panicked mess of nurses and Healers and Aurors and civilians. Draco took a deep breath and caught the next passing nurse for instructions.

~~~

Two hours later, Draco was pulled aside by Ron. The red head was unhurt apart from a bump on the head which had already been covered by a bruise paste, but he looked worried nevertheless. Draco narrowed his eyes and he resisted the urge to clasp his charm. It would have warmed and vibrated against his chest if something had happened. Harry had sworn it would. (And it had, always, in the past. No reason to think differently now.)

Despite that, however, Draco felt a growing sense of unease in his stomach. He had been steadily making his way down the ward, seeing to every patient because none of them on this raid tonight had escaped a brush with a potion. It was something new and the culprit, the inventor, was unharmed in the Ministry; the Aurors were currently working him over to get the recipe, ingredients, anything. Draco was working with what he had and he was helping the patients, administering arnica and cinnamon to the affected. He suspected that they would need more, but he was buying them--patients and healers alike--time.

At the far end of the Floor, two Aurors stood guard by a room through which nurses and Healers alike were constantly walking. They all had pinched looks, furrowed eyebrows, crisp and hurried footsteps. A cart for restarting a heart--the latest Muggle technology that had been perfected for working with magic in St. Mungo's--had been brought in an hour ago.

"What happened?" Draco asked calmly. "My charm--"

"Harry cut it off," Ron admitted quietly. He pulled Draco into a room set aside for the families of patients. It was full of soft furniture and soft colours. The lights were supposed to be soothing; Draco often thought it should be darker. Ron looked away. "We knew it was going to be dangerous tonight."

"So why did he cut it off?" Draco demanded through clenched teeth.

Ron swallowed hard. "Because this case?" He took a deep breath. "None of us were sure if we would make it out alive."

Draco felt his heart stop and he fell back into a chair. "And you let him go in there?"

"Harry volunteered," Ron whispered. 

Draco opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He felt his spine bending, curling in, as the weight of the news really hit him. Harry had volunteered for a mission where no one was sure that life was assured. "That bastard. I'm going to kill him."

Ron chuckled, but it was weak and sounded forced. "I said the same thing to him."

Draco scrubbed his face with his hands. "What the fuck happened?"

"Wizarding world's most wanted met with a potion genius," Ron spit out. "We had evidence that some really dark stuff had hit the market and when we traced it, we got to a group that had at least two wizards that had a bounty so high..." Ron shook his head. "The investigation has been going on for months and every new lead, new trace..."

Draco sucked in a breath. "The patients I've been seeing--"

Ron half smirked. "I know you didn't mean to break patient-Healer confidentiality, but when you talked about your cases, Draco, it was gold for us. You talked about patients that helped us find the trail the dealers didn't mean for us to find. Your talk about what the patients had taken, what their symptoms were--it led us to tonight."

Draco snorted. "Small comfort. My husband-to-be is dying, Ronald Weasley, and all you can tell me is that my work-day stories gave you the lead that brought him to death's door."

Ron clenched his fists and opened them; did it again and then again. "I'm sorry. If I could've--you know I would've--"

Draco rolled his eyes and waved Ron's shoulda-coulda-woulda's away. "Just wait until your wife finds out. You've got _kids_. Do you even realize--"

"That one day they could be taking this shit if we hadn't done this?" Ron growled. "I fucking know. I've thought about nothing else. Do _you_ realize that I've thought of my brother, an addict, one day getting his hands on this?"

Draco winced. Harry's family had become his; of course Draco understood where Ron was coming from. "Just...I'm sorry, but just tell me what happened tonight."

Silence. And then: "We got it all lined up," Ron said. "Christmas Eve, Harry said, would be best; everyone expects the Ministry to take the night off, it was the best time. They wouldn't expect it. We knew where they were, knew what wards they were using, knew who would be on guard. We had snapshots of everyone we knew was connected to this and prepared ourselves, knowing what some of them were capable of, what they would do."

Ron took a deep breath. "Getting in was easy. Getting out...this potion genius had developed a new potion, a...what do the Muggles call it? It was like a grenade. He had had vials filled with this potion that they carried and threw it and when the vial shattered..."

No wonder his patients had looked like they'd been hit with acid. Draco itched only for a moment to get his hands on a sample, find out what was in it and how it could be countered. Ron continued, though. "Harry and I, a few others, we got to the basement where this genius and the heads were waiting out. They were waiting to see if they should flee or if their people would force the Aurors back. I never saw anything like it, their confidence that they could beat Aurors who had all the evidence they needed to put all of the ring in Azkaban for life.

"A fight broke out. And Harry...I got separated from him, but when the rest of us had arrested all but one...we realized that Harry was squaring off against Number One."

Antov the Bloody. Draco didn't know his last name, but remember hearing the title now and then in the last year. He didn't know much other than a massacre at a Muggle elementary school, a terrorist attack, and something about a mass killing of a town. 

"The guy had something in his pocket, I don't know what, but I remember a flash, a bang, and Harry's scream of pain." Ron shook his head. "I don't know how he did it, Harry. He was bleeding and clutching his chest, but he brought that...son of a bitch down."

"Dead?" Draco asked.

"Dead," Ron answered, darkly. 

A nurse stuck her head into the room. She looked harried and upset and conflicted. "Healer Malfoy? I'm sorry, we shouldn't ask, I know, but--"

"You need me," Draco muttered.

She nodded. "The potion--our other experts can't figure it out."

Draco stood, taking a deep breath, and smoothed down his robes. "I'm coming."

~~~

As dawn began spilling into the room, Draco kept his eyes on Harry. They had stablized him an hour ago; Draco's quick knowledge with potions, with ingredients, with effects, had helped the other Healers to finally stop Harry's heart from flat-lining; it'd helped them identify which was the best way to treat him. Draco was exhausted and wrung out and his hands were bloody...from Harry's blood. He'd been a mess--worse than the others, Harry had looked like he had tipped a cauldron filled with acid. Most of his face, his hands, his chest had been raw, almost completely to the bone. The skin, muscles, around his heart had taken a lot of the potion, almost eating into his heart. There were other injuries, of course; a bruised rib, a twisted ankle, snapped wrist. But it had been the potion that had almost taken Harry from him.

Draco reached out, desperate to touch Harry, but was brought up short; he kept forgetting Harry's blood on his hands.

"Draco?" Hermione called out.

Draco turned to face her where she stood in the doorway. She was only partially dressed for going out and her hair was all over the place. Draco sighed. "He's going to be fine."

Hermione smiled. "Thanks to you." She glanced at Harry, looked over the machines that Harry was hooked up to. "How are you?"

Draco chuckled darkly and fell back against his chair. "I had to save his life. I'm not...I almost..."

As he broke down, sobbing into his bloodied hands, she enveloped him in a hug.

~~~

"I'm going to kill him," Draco said into the silence, hours later. He'd been sent home to clean himself up and get a bag for Harry and he'd returned, fed and washed. He'd been stopped at the desk--someone high up had given him a week's leave, paid, and he suspected it was the Director of the hospital. The nurse at the desk had looked pained, watching Draco out of the corner of his eye. The leave wasn't surprising, actually; Draco suspected that he had been the first Healer in a long time who had had to work on his partner. If it hadn't been for the extent of Harry's injuries and the unknown potion, Draco wouldn't have had to.

Which is one of the many reasons why he was going to kill Harry as soon as he woke up.

"You won't," Ron sighed. He, too, had been sent home, but had shown up not long after. Hermione had gone to work, leaving her husband in charge of watching over Harry.

"I will," Draco said feverently. "Do you know what he has done? We had _plans_. We were going to go to see my mother and she was over the moon. Her first Christmas brunch with her soon-to-be son-in-law and now he's done this. Do you even know what my mother is--"

"Is what, dear?" Mother drawled.

Draco and Ron turned sharply, eyes wide. Mother raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Draco swallowed hard, fighting back another wave of tears, and stood up. "Nothing."

She didn't believe him, of course she didn't, but she moved further into the room and took Draco's seat. "He looks better than I imagined."

Draco almost asked her how she'd found out, but he suspected that someone on the hospital staff had told her; his mother had more friends and aquantinces than his father had had. He looked at Harry instead. "We tried."

Mother laid her hand on Draco's where it rested by Harry's ankle. "You did well, sweatheart. I can't imagine what it must have been like, but of course you did everything you could and it was perfectly well done."

Draco bit back a sob and bent to rest his head against hers. "I did." By god, did he.

~~~

Harry woke up that night. Mother had left before dinner and Ron had been replaced by Hermione soon after. Draco was dried up of tears by then, but he still felt something like a sob in his throat. Lodged tight, it was made breathing difficult and squeezed his hope into something that was no bigger than an ember.

"D-draco," Harry coughed, eyelids fluttering.

Draco choked on a breath as he leapt up to bush the call button and kissed Harry's forehead. Harry half smiled and his hand gripped Draco's tight. Draco leaned his forehead against Harry's for just a moment before the nurses and Healers came rushing in to take vitals and ask questions and then there was an Auror to ask Harry about the case and then another round of nurses for more blood and vitals.

Draco watched from a corner, holding hands with Hermione as he hardly dared to breath. It all took too long; Draco keenly felt every second he wasn't at Harry's side. He needed more than just a moment with Harry awake and asking for him. He needed hours to touch Harry and assure himself that Harry wasn't just alive and awake; he was whole.

"He's fine," Hermione kept whispering.

Fine. Harry was fine. Draco squeezed her hand and she responded in kind.

~~~

"They told me what you did," Harry muttered later, into the dark.

Draco looked up. He had been resting with his head by Harry's hip, Harry's hand a reassuring weight on his head. "Hmm?"

Harry smiled. "They told me that you identified the important ingredients in the potion, what they were doing to me."

"You're not the only one in this partnership who can save the other," Draco grumbled, blushing hotly.

"Don't," Harry said fiercely. Draco blinked and raised his head. Harry looked away. "I'm sure Ron told you what I did, with your charm."

"And you will be paying for that later," Draco told him.

But he did understand what Harry was saying. Harry hadn't told him anything about this case except for slipped comments, thoughts, ideas; he usually did, sharing work stories with Draco and Draco did the same. And then he'd blocked the charm, kept Draco from knowing that he was in danger. But then, when Harry had been brought in on the brink of death, Draco had had to put aside his emotions and his relationship to keep the man he loved, the man he was going to marry, alive.

"Don't you ever fucking do that to me again," Draco whispered harshly.

Harry nodded, once, curtly. "I promise."

~~~

"That's it, just one more step," Draco promised Harry. 

Harry growled--literally growled--and shot Draco a dark look. "All you've said, this entire trip home, is 'just a short trip, Harry'. 'It's just a little more'."

Draco shrugged, unrepentant. "I'm just trying to be helpful."

"If that's what Healers calling helping, I think that they need to go back to school," Harry joked.

Draco rolled his eyes, but opened the door. Strangely, warmth greeted them both and the lights were on and... "Am I hallucinating?" Harry asked.

"No," Draco said slowly. Because their family--the Weasleys, Draco's mother, Andromeda and Teddy--was in their home. Because of Harry's injury, any plans that they had made had been cancelled to give Harry a chance to rest rather than traveling to see anyone. Draco and Harry had plans to be alone, enjoy a small meal in bed and open presents and sleep.

But now--yes, all the lights were on and it was warm because the heating was on as well as a fire. The sofa and coffee table had been pushed aside a huge table had been added in their place. Dishes and silverware were on the table and Bill and Mr. Weasley were mixing drinks.

"We couldn't leave well enough alone," Ron told them with a smile as he put a dish of potatoes on the table.

"Oh, Harry," Mrs. Weasley called, bustling into the sitting room. She enveloped them both in a hug and then took Harry's arm to lead him to the table. "I know you need your rest and you'll probably fall asleep before desert, but I just couldn't let you and Draco be alone for Christmas."

"It's Christmas Eve," Draco protested weakly. He hung his and Harry's coats up, but stood by the doorway, taking in his home. He just couldn't believe this was happening.

"I know that," Mrs. Weasley insisted, "but it's not the point."

Draco caught Harry's eye and they shared a look that agreed that it wasn't about them or even Harry's injury. It was about the family needing to give Harry and Draco something; it was highly likely that the refridgerator was stocked with easy to heat meals and more would stuffed in there. The house had probably been cleaned to within an inch of its life. Draco smiled. "So, what's for dinner?"

~~~

Harry hummed happily when Draco finally joined him in bed. The last guest had left and the sitting room put to rights. The fridge was completely stocked and more in the freezer; the usual evening chores were done and Draco was just...Harry was _home_ and in _their_ bed.

"Join me?" Harry asked playfully, lifting the sheets.

Draco slipped in quickly and Harry curled around him. Draco let out a breath as he wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders. "That's better."

"Much," Harry agreed sleepily.

In the sitting room, the grandfather clocked chimed midnight. "Happy Christmas, Harry."

"Happy Christmas, Draco."


End file.
